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[RC] Times of Trotting Turtles - Paul Sidio

Kristi,
 
See what I told you about these Central Region Wanna Be Turtles? Hiding behind bushes. Taking naps, pulling perfectly good shoes off of innocent horses...Whatever it takes to win... I told you they play hardball  around here. 
 
Even that Nancy Mitts who sounded sooo innocent in her post..:).... Well, She and her husband Monte have dragged down more than their share of Turtle awards.  I have ridden in LD rides where Monte was riding the 50 mile ride, and I passed him halfway through my first loop. He had  an hour head start, and I caught him at about the 8-9 mile marker. Whenever he rode, we always knew not to expect him at the finish line until 15-20 minutes before the cutoff.  His attitude was he paid an entry fee, and was going to use up all his time enjoying it. I am telling you we have some serious Turtlers here.  You may see some that look like they are tailing their horse up a hill??? Not hardly, they are trying to drag that poor horse into going even slower. Watch closely and you will see them do it downhill too. Those Turtle people are too serious of competitors for me to mess with, so I stay as far ahead of them as I can. 
 
In my first ever LD ride, I decided to ride with some people I kinda knew. One was an older woman who was recovering from some sort of fairly serious surgery. She lamented that her out of shape fat quarter horse would be lucky to finish. As a special favor, the ride manager allowed an unentered rider ( on an older  standard bred) to accompany her in case she got off in the wilderness and needed assistance if her stitches came unglued or whatever.  So my "rabbits" were an older woman recovering from an operation and her nurse. I was thinking about possibly getting a Turtle in my very first ride.. Hah!!  In the Central Region, that won't even get you close. Sick old ladies on out of shape horses aren't even in the running ( or crawling we should say) for Turtle Awards...  We finished in the top 5 for crying out loud. We never had a chance.
 
One other thing, seriously. Your slow  trotting and walking horse may decide to move out a lot faster during a ride with other horses around. My horse has a very slow walk when on his own. When other horses walk  faster he keeps up. Nancy Mitts is correct about using all the different gaits to use different muscles.
 
Have Fun
Paul N. Sidio
( Who has never won a Turtle, but there is always next year)
Spokane MO